Romney was responding to a question prompted by reports earlier this week that President Obama had once consumed dog meat when offered it as a child growing up in Indonesia. The Romney campaign quickly pounced on the story as a rebuttal to Obama campaign jabs about the former governor putting his dog in a crate on top of his car during a family road trip. “You know, I don’t recall eating anything particularly bizarre,” Romney said. – The Hill Reporting Romney’s Interview With National Review

IBD Reports that “a record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program… As a result, by April there were 10.8 million people on disability, according to Social Security Administration data released this week.”

The Endorsement of Democrat Simcha Felder to the State Senate will be made by Democrat Assemblyman Dov Hikind on his Saturday Night Radio Show. Senate Leader, Republican Skelos is expected to be a guest on the show. The news was first repored by VIN News

Sun Sentinal Reports: After more than a week in jail, George Zimmerman just found out that he will be allowed bail on the second-degree murder charge he faces in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Judge Kenneth Lester said Zimmerman’s bond will be set at $150,000. He will be placed on GPS monitoring, and will not be released from custody today.

Zimmerman arrived in court about 9 a.m., wearing a suit and tie and handcuffs, with a chain across his waist. He was seated next to his attorney, Mark O’Mara.
Also in the courtroom were Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, and family attorney Benjamin Crump.

A bail hearing has begun for the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murdering Trayvon Martin. An attorney for George Zimmerman is asking the Seminole County judge to let Zimmerman post bail at a hearing Friday. Zimmerman is in the courtroom, shackled but dressed in a suit. Martin’s parents are also in the courtroom. Experts say Zimmerman stands a good chance of getting bail since he has proven he’s not a flight risk. He turned himself in to authorities last week after he was charged with second-degree murder. – ABC News

While discussing swing states, Schweitzer said Romney would have a “tall order to position Hispanics to vote for him,” and I replied that was mildly ironic since Mitt’s father was born in Mexico, giving the clan a nominal claim to being Hispanic. Schweitzer replied that it is “kinda ironic given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy.” Women, he said, are “not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.”

President Barack Obama’s campaign denounced the comments, and his team has declared Romney’s religion off limits.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center says it was inappropriate for West Virginia U.S. Senate candidate John Raese to equate anti-smoking laws with the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. A video of an April 12 appearance posted on Youtube shows the Morgantown Republican criticizing his home county’s indoor smoking ban. He said requiring stickers on buildings declaring them smoke-free is like how “Hitler used to put a Star of David on everybody’s lapel.” – AP Via VIN

The agent had posted on his Facebook wall that he “checked out” Palin during the 2008 campaign. Palin told Greta Van Susteren that hopefully his wife “sends him to the doghouse. As long as he’s not eating the dog, along with his former boss.” A reference to President Obama eating dog meat as child in Indonesia. – BuzzFeed.

NYDN: After meeting with rocker Ted Nugent on Thursday, the Secret Service says its probe into what he had to say about President Barack Obama is over. Last weekend during a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis, Nugent rallied support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and said of the Obama administration: “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.” He also said he would be “dead or in jail by this time next year” if Obama is re-elected.

That drew the attention of the Secret Service. Nugent said he discussed the matter with two agents on Thursday while in Oklahoma. “The issue has been resolved,” agency spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement. “The Secret Service does not anticipate any further action.”